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The NC State Strawberry Team

Find this page at: go.ncsu.edu/readext?635985

North Carolina State University provides excellence in all areas of strawberry research and extension

North Carolina State University (NC State) has been a platform for research, outreach and education to strawberry growers in the Southeast for decades. The North Carolina strawberry industry looks back on a rich and successful history of collaborative work with NC State, and we are proud to serve a successful and growing strawberry production and nursery industry in North Carolina.

In the following we want to give a short overview of the capacities at NC State, and put some names to our strawberry program. We explain who we are and what we do to make NC State the leading and most comprehensive public service on strawberries in the Southeast.

Breeding and Variety Trialing:

NC States’ strawberry breeding program under the lead of Dr. Gina Fernandez develops cultivars adapted to the southeastern US. The overall goal is to develop cultivars with superior horticultural traits (yield, flavor, size, etc), however our program is unique in that we are developing markers for resistance to what we have called the “hidden enemy” or more technically known as hemibiotrophic stage of fruit and crown anthracnose. Our program tests standard and new cultivars from other programs to determine if they are adapted to North Carolina. The program works closely with the MPRU as well as the production systems program at NC state. In 2019, the program has released two new short-day varieties (Rocco and Liz).

Production and Nursery Systems:

NC States’ strawberry production and nursery systems program is led by Dr. Mark Hoffmann, who also is the small fruits extension specialist at NC State. The program informs directly the extension systems, and performs production research in the areas of strawberry management, cold protection and plant conditioning. The program is utilizing the large research station network associated with NC States’ College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, as well as greenhouse facilities of the Department of Horticulture and controlled environment facilities (Phytotron) on campus.

Socio-Economics:

The newest addition to the strawberry capacity of NC State are Dr. Daniel Tregeagle and Dr. Heidi Schweizer, both hired in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics in 2018. Dr. Schweizer is focusing on supply chain optimization, while Dr. Tregeagle is focusing on optimizing crop production and agricultural policy.

Extension and Outreach Systems:

N.C. Cooperative Extension personnel is highly engaged with commercial and consumer aspects of strawberry production for many years. In 2018, NC States’ Horticulture Program Fruit Extension Working Group was developed to create a long-lasting and comprehensive outreach program around fruit crops in North Carolina. The group is led by Dr. Mark Hoffmann, small fruits extension specialist and Paige Burns, extension county director in Richmond Co. and focuses on crop specific training, communication, team-building and impact assessments.

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NC State Extension is the largest outreach program at NC State University.
Based in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, we reach millions of
North Carolina citizens each year through local centers in the state's 100 counties
and with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
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About Strawberry Growers Information

North Carolina ranks third in national production of fresh market strawberries with an estimated 2,000 acres of strawberry plasticulture production and a farm gate value of about 20 million dollars. The North Carolina strawberry industry is highly decentralized and is almost entirely based on small-to medium-size family farms, selling at U-pick and ready-pick roadside stands and in farmers markets in all 100 counties. North Carolina is a leading state in ‘direct marketing’ of strawberries, and has one acre of strawberries per 4,500 people. The majority of the strawberries produced in North Carolina are grown in an annual hill plasticulture system (called ‘plasticulture’) with less than 100 acres of the matted row system in the foothills and mountains of North Carolina. The advantages of strawberry plasticulture production and marketing include a 5-7 week harvest season in the spring compared to about 2-3 weeks for matted row. In addition, there is no longer a breeding program in North Carolina for the development of matted row varieties, but there is a very active strawberry breeding program for plasticulture varieties that is led by Dr. Gina Fernandez, Dept. of Horticultural Science.

The main plasticulture variety in the mountains and piedmont today is Chandler. This is a good all-round variety for direct marketing. The main variety grown in the Sandhills and Eastern NC is Camarosa. Camarosa is a larger berry than Chandler, and it also has better shelf-life and resistance to rain damage than Chandler. However, Camarosa is more cold sensitive than Chandler, and growers in the piedmont, foothills and mountain are strongly advised to the use winter row covers with Camarosa.

Extension agents and growers can find research-based information specific to North Carolina strawberry production on this site, whether the information originated in the Department of Horticultural Science, Agricultural and Resource Economics, Plant Pathology, Entomology or the State Climate Office. Success in agriculture requires a multidisciplinary approach. The goal in designing information portals is to save growers and Extension agents time and effort by creating a one-stop shop for a specific agricultural commodity, in this case, strawberries.

NC State University and N.C. A&T State University work in tandem, along with federal, state and local governments, to form a strategic partnership called N.C. Cooperative Extension, which staffs local offices in all 100 counties and with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.